Asking the Doc
by MegaKitty
Summary: Marty has been acting strange. George seeks advice from Doc.


Asking the Doc  
George McFly seeks advice about his son from Doctor Brown  
Rating PG  
Disclaimer: The World of Back to the Future does not belong to me 

George McFly was worried about his youngest son. Marty had been acting so strange lately. He wandered around with this dazed look on his face as though the home he'd lived in his whole life was foreign territory, looking at him and his mother and his brother and sister like they were strangers. Not only that but his grades had gotten worse, going from an A average to a C average, he no longer played with his rock band, and he hadn't spent any time at all with his girlfriend Jennifer Parker. George didn't understand what could have turned, his happy confident son into a moody frightened young man overnight. He sat in his study now glancing at his calendar. It had been almost a month now. October 26th was when it had all started. He and Lorraine had come home from thier normal Saturday morning tennis game, Marty had taken one look at them and passed out. He'd been babbling something about the car being wrecked. Ever since then he'd been acting strange. No one seemed to understand where this behavior was coming from. Dave and Linda didn't know, Jennifer was completely baffled. There was only one person who might be able to shed some light on his son's strange behavior. George grabbed his car keys and jacket.  
"I'm going out for a while, honey," he called to Lorraine.  
"All right dear," Lorraine called from the living room. George hopped into his car and pulled out of the driveway. He'd only met his son's friend Doctor Brown twice and he thought the man to be a little bit of a weirdo, but if anyone would know about Marty it would be him. The house looked almost exactly like his image of a mad scientist's laboratory. There was no answer to the knock on the door so George just went right in. He found the scientist hovered over a Delorean that looked as though it had had several modifications done to it.  
"Hello?" George called. Doc jumped and turned. He was surprised to find Marty's father standing in the middle of his lab. He was familiar with the man of course, having first come in contact with him thirty years ago, when his time machine had sent Marty back to 1955, and Marty had screwed up his parents first meeting. He'd kept a rather close eye on the George McFly and Lorraine Baines after sending Marty back to the future, to make sure that the couple stayed together, got married and had children. He'd met Marty of course, though technically not the same Marty he'd met in 1955. He'd had to keep a lot secret, however. There was no way he could tell Marty about the time machine before it was time, or about the journey he would take to his parent's past.  
"Mr. McFly," he greeted his friend's father. "This is a pleasant surprise. Marty isn't here."  
"I know," George said. "That's uh not why I came here actually. I was hoping you could help me."  
"Of course," Doc said. "Please sit down." Once they were seated George began.  
"I"m worried about Marty," George said. "He's been acting really strange lately."  
"How so?"  
"He's been walking around with this dazed expression on his face. It's as though he doesn't know where he is half the time. And so many things seem to take him by surprise. Like the other day, my wife's brother Joe came over for dinner and Marty was just shocked to see him. Joe comes over for dinner every other week." Doc nodded. He'd suspected something like this might happen. Marty's presence in 1955 had definitely altered the future. The homelife of the Marty he had met three years ago was nothing like the homelife Marty had described to him thirty years ago. He knew that when present Marty had gone into the future and past Marty had taken his place that the life he had come back to would not be the one he remembered. His father was now a successful writer, rather than a wimp who let Biff push him around. His mother was not an unhappy alcoholic, but an attractive business woman. Even though this life had to be better than the one he'd left behind, it was only natural that the teen would have difficulty adjusting. But how could he explain that to Marty's father?  
"Well, you know how kids are these days, George," he said.  
"Doctor Brown," George said. "I had two kids before Marty, I know all about teenage mood swings. That's not what this is. I know you know what's going on. I just want to help him. No matter what he's into, I just want to help."  
"Well I can assure you he's not into anything illegal Mr. McFly."  
"I didn't think he was. Marty's always been such a good kid. Hell, he reminds me a lot of..." George shook his head.  
"Who?" Doc asked suddenly very interested.  
"Oh just someone I met back in high school. I only knew him a couple of days, but he really changed my life. If it wasn't for him I never would have married Marty's mother." Doc was standing now and pacing. He had hoped against hope that George and Lorraine would forget Marty Klein, the young man who had brought them together and then disappeared.  
"This young man," Doc said carefully. "What was he like exactly?" George sighed trying to remember back thirty years.  
"Well, at first I thought he was kind of strange. Just wouldn't leave me alone. Guess he thought I needed a friend or something, which I guess I did. I was a total wimp in high school. Let everyone push me around. Anyway, one day this guy comes out of nowhere and starts telling me that I should ask Lorraine to the dance on Saturday. I thought he was nuts. Me, George McFly school nerd ask Lorraine Bains, the prettiest girl in school to the dance. Meanwhile, Lorraine is all gaga over my new friend and I couldn't blame her, the guy was totally cool. He actually stood up to Biff Tannen the biggest bully in the school. So even after Lorraine asks him to take her to the dance, he's still insisting that she wants to go with me. So we work out this plan. He'll take Lorraine to the dance and act like a total sleazeball so I can come to her rescue. The only glitch was that when I went to rescue Lorraine the sleazeball was Biff. Nearly broke my arm, but I don't know, something happened to me and I wind up laying the jerk out with one punch." George smiled at the memory. Even though Biff had grown up eventually, he still got a little thrill when he thought about that punch.  
"So anyway, the guitar player had hurt his hand so our friend has to take over for him, leaving me to dance with Lorraine. Lorraine's completely forgotten her crush on our friend by this time. Of course, the captain of the football team has to cut in. He's being a total jerk and Lorraine's looking at me with this "help me" look, and I figure if I could take on Biff surely I can stand up to this dork. I shove him to the floor and I that's when I kissed Lorraine." Doc smiled. He knew all this of course, but George had such a wistful smile on his face.  
"He disappeared after that night, we never saw him again. Now that I think about it his name was...Marty." Realization suddenly seemed to dawn on George's face. His eyes widened as he remembered the young man who had changed his life. "Doctor Brown," George said slowly, his head turning toward the Delorean. "What exactly are you working on here?" Doc sighed. He couldn't hide this from Marty's father.  
"It's a time machine," he said. George's eyes widened and he stood up and began to pace.  
"Oh my god," George said over and over again. "It was Marty. It was my son"  
"Not Marty as you remember him. That Marty, I'm afraid is gone. The Marty you have now, is the man who made you take your wife to that dance in 1955. In doing so he altered your future, and the life he knew in 1985."  
"You sent my son back to 1955?" George glared at the scientist.  
"Quite accidently," Doc said. "But yes I did."  
"So now, I have a son from an alternate reality living in my house and my son from this reality is gone."  
"I wish I could have spared you that sir, but I had to let the Marty from this reality get sent back to the past. If I hadn't it could have been disastrous."  
"How the hell did it happen?" George asked rubbing his eyes. Doc winced as he remembered. Libyans, stolen plutonium, shots, Marty escaping in the time machine. Thank God, he'd decided to blow caution to the wind and read the letter Marty had sent him in the past about getting shot.  
"I'd just as soon spare you the details," he said. "But as to how he got involved with you and your wife, well he had to. To ensure his own existence."  
"I'm not following."  
"Well, I guess I better start at the beginning. When Marty first showed up at my door in 1955, I thought he was some loony kid, playing jokes on an old man. He started talking about time travel, and 1985, and Ronald Reagan being president. Boy, I can't tell you how surprised I was when that one actually came true. But then he told me about an idea for time travel that I had come with that day. I hadn't told anyone. Then he showed me the time machine." He guestured toward the Delorean. "We figured out how to send him home, but he'd already run into you and your wife. The day he met your wife, was the day you were supposed to meet."  
"He pushed me out of the street," George remembered. "Yes," Doc said. "Your father in law was suppose to hit you with the car that day. By pushing you out of the way, Marty inadvertantly altered the past, endangering the future. To ensure that Marty and your other children had a future Marty had to make sure that you and your wife met and fell in love."  
"That's why he was so insistant that I take her to the dance," George said in wonderment.  
"Yes," Doc said.  
"It was him, wasn't it?" George said. "The alien that came into my room and told me if I didn't ask Lorraine to the dance he'd melt my brain."  
"Desperate times called for desperate measures. He did feel bad about the chloroform." George shook his head.  
"I can't believe this. I wrote my first best seller based on that experience."  
"I read it," Doc said. "Marty brought me a copy, having no idea of course that he was the inspiration for it."  
"Meeting Marty changed my whole life," George said. "I never would have had to guts to send in my short stories to that magazine, I never would have gotten that writing scholarship to Berkely, God who knows where I would have been?" He suddenly stopped.  
"That's it isn't it. That's why Marty's been acting so strangely. He's not used to this. In his past, this isn't what his life is like. All the things his mother and I have become are because of him."  
"That's it exactly." George sat down with a thunk and put his head in his hands.  
"How bad was it?" George asked. "How bad would Lorraine and I have turned out if Marty hadn't come into our lives when he did?"  
"He didn't have a bad life," Doc assured him. "He had his music and his girlfriend, and he was a pretty confident kid, even if he did have a bit of trouble with punctuality. Just give him time Mr. McFly. He'll come around and get used to this new existence."  
"Thank you Doctor Brown. I appreciate you telling me all this. However, in the mean time I would appreciate it if Marty stayed in this time and didn't do any more traveling in your machine."  
"Oh you have my word on that Mr. McFly. I will make sure Marty stays in 1985."  
"Thank you," George said. He drove home deep in thought. God, he couldn't wrap his mind around it. His son had been there, thirty years ago. His son had inspired him to ask Lorraine to have a milkshake with him the next day when he'd taken her home that night, his son had inspired him to write, to go to college and write his first novel which had made him more money than he'd ever dreamed of. God, it was incredible. He pulled into the driveway and went into the house. He climbed the stairs to the second floor and walked carefully down the hall to his son's room. Marty was sitting at his desk working on his homework. George carefully knocked on Marty's door.  
"Come in," Marty called. George entered the room and went to his son. He wrapped an arm around his shoulder and hugged him. Marty glanced up at him in confusion.  
"Hey dad," he said. "What was that for?"  
"Thank you, son," he said. "Just saying thank you?"  
"For what?"  
"Just being here." He turned to leave but turned back.  
"Oh just so you know, we did go easy on you when you set the carpet on fire."


End file.
